The present invention relates to animal feeders and, more specifically, to an improved animal feeding device and a facility for housing the same.
Animal feeders are well known in the art and numerous designs have been developed in an attempt to efficiently control the dispensing of feed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,656 to Waldner et al. discloses a typical animal feeder whereby feed stored in the hopper is directed through a discharge opening by a baffle and into a trough. The flow of the feed into the trough is controlled by a gate that is movable to vary the size of the discharge opening. The disadvantage of this conventional design is that rain and other moisture can easily slip past the gate and saturate the feed at the bottom of the hopper, causing the feed to congeal and prevent fresh feed from reaching the trough.
Some animal feeder designs have attempted to address this problem. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,109 to De Groot et al. has improved upon the conventional animal feeder design by including multiple closing plates such that rain and other moisture are not likely to penetrate the hopper. Alternatively, U.S. Pat. No. 5,315,958 to Förster has provided a worm conveyor that drives the feed out of the hopper. Even if feed at the bottom of the hopper should become saturated and congeal, the worm conveyor forces the feed out of the hopper, allowing fresh feed to reach the trough. The disadvantage of these designs is that they are expensive to manufacture or require the use of many components.
Another disadvantage of conventional animal feeders is that it is difficult for a person to determine how much feed remains inside the hopper of the feeder. Conventional feeders have no means of indicating when feed inside the hopper is running low. Rather, to determine the fill level inside the hopper, a farmer has no option but to open the hopper lid and visually inspect the contents from above. This procedure is time consuming and labor intensive.
Still a further disadvantage of conventional animal feeders is that the hopper lids often are difficult to open and open in such a manner that encumbers replenishing the feed. Most conventional feeders have split top lids whereby each half is separately hinged and opens independent of the other half. A farmer must open both halves of the hopper lid to gain access to the hopper in order to replenish feed, which is time consuming and labor intensive.
Animal feeders typically are placed in animal feeding facilities. Conventional animal feeding facilities include a plurality of pens where the cattle and other livestock are exposed to sunlight, wind, and other elements. These feeding facilities are traditionally large and thus are not efficient for use by small producers. Livestock are healthiest and will eat regularly when they are kept in a calming environment. When conventional feeding facilities do not protect the livestock from the elements, the livestock are anxious and either stop eating or overeat when weather conditions return to normal. Additionally, cleaning individual pens is difficult in conventional feeding facilities because moving livestock from one pen to another can be difficult.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide an inexpensive animal feeder that allows for the efficient and controlled dispensing of feed while preventing rain and other moisture from saturating the feed and blocking the animal feeder.
Another object of this invention is to provide an animal feeder with a first slide device that permits the efficient and controlled dispensing of feed and a second slide device that prevents rain and other moisture from saturating the feed.
A further object of this invention is to provide an animal feeding facility that protects the livestock from excessive sunlight, wind, rain, snow, and other elements.
Still a further object of this invention is to provide an animal feeding facility that allows livestock to be easily moved from pen to pen such that individual pens may be cleaned.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.